1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques and devices for detecting anomalies in a monitored environment, and transmitting information in response to detecting the anomalies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Often it is desirable to monitor an environment to detect anomalies or changes in the environment. The environment may have many changing variables which indicate an overall behavior of the environment. These changes in the environment may necessitate some sort of action to prevent catastrophic consequences brought on by the changes. By monitoring the environment, one may be able to alert an individual to take action.
For example, it may be desirable to monitor the flow of a river to detect changes in the flow of the river. Changes in the flow of a river may indicate an approaching flash flood. A device monitoring river flow may alert a meteorologist who may issue a flash flood warning to the public.
Currently devices exist which monitor environments continuously to detect anomalies or changes in the environment. These devices must be preloaded with a predefined value in order to detect changes in the environment. For example, the predefined value may be a threshold, which, if exceeded by a monitored environment variable may cause a device to generate a signal to alert an individual to take action. For example, a device which monitors the heartbeat of a patient may generate an alert if the heartbeat exceeds a predefined rate. In another implementation, the predefined value may be a pattern of variable behavior. If the behavior of a monitored variable matches the pattern, a device may alert an individual to take action. For example, a device which monitors the heart rhythm of a patient may look for a particular pattern in the heart rhythm. If the pattern is matched, the device may generate an alert.
A disadvantage to these devices is that the abnormal behavior of the environmental variable being monitored must be known in advance in order to detect anomalous behavior. If changes which may be of interest to an individual monitoring the environment occur, but those changes do not exceed the predefined threshold or match the predefined pattern, then the individual monitoring the environment will not be alerted to the change in environmental variable. Therefore, anomalous behavior which is not known in advance will go undetected.
Another approach to detecting anomalies in monitored environments may be to continuously transmit the signals corresponding to monitored environmental variables to a base unit monitored by an individual. Monitoring devices which continuously transmit data consume a great deal of power.
Accordingly, in order to meet the power demands of such devices, a large power supply must be available. Current solutions to the problem are to provide a large number of batteries with the unit, or to connect the monitoring device to a power source such as a wall power outlet or solar cells. The problem with these solutions is that a connection to a wall power outlet, solar cells or a large battery pack may limit the mobility of the device.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved device which may monitor environmental variables for anomalies and in the event of an anomaly, transmit information.